Originally, I wasn’t going to say anything about it, because quite honestly I’ve wasted far too much digital ink on this issue. But I listened to the first few moments of the August 9 edition of Wednesday Night Shootin’ with Tonya Rogers (which you can listen to here (FREEPLUGFREEPLUGFREEPLUG). And I got a few emails about it. And then I got a tweet at 1am early Thursday morning, which is the latest in a number of tweets I’ve gotten since Monday (even though IT’S LIKE RIGHT THERE IN THE PINNED TWEET THAT I LEFT. DO YOU NOT READ IT? Sorry. I digress).
I suppose I should address the elephant in the room. But rest assured that (a) this will be the one and only time I address this in a public forum, and (b) not everyone will see this.
On August 23, 2012 (I checked), I joined a certain wrestling site. When I joined, it was basically no bigger than any small wrestling community that posts wrestling content. I mean, goodness, there must be thousands of sites that do that. Over the five years that I was there, I’ve seen the site change, but I’ve also seen it grow. Some changes were for the better. Some for the worse. It’s the “some for the worse” that ultimately led to my decision to leave.
In recent weeks, the moderation of the site has been called into question. Granted it’s been called into question in the past, but it seemed to be on an escalated level as of late. Maybe it’s me, but a moderation team of three on a website that hundreds comment and thousands read on a daily basis is FAR too small.
I don’t know the situation in full, nor will I pretend to know the situation in full, but it’s that inconsistency in moderation as well as the people responsible for said inconsistency in moderation is what led to this. All the people wanted were answers. Just explain the thought process that led to the decisions you’re making. In any community on any level for any purpose, that’s what people expect of their leaders. Explain why one action is punishable by a ban, while another person doing a far worse action doesn’t even so much as get a slap on the wrist. Are people going to agree with the decision? Not always. Will it make you credible among the community at large? Probably.
Instead of addressing the concerns of the community at large and the issues of the individuals affected, the choice made was a rush to judgment and to ban everyone involved. Not only that, others were also banned simply for the crime of being associated with that group of people involved. This included longtime members of the community and staff members, of which I was one. Now, I get that being a site owner means you can ban anyone for any reason whatsoever. If that’s the rules, that’s the rules.
But I was not okay with that. I went straight to the top (I mean, as far to the top as I can go without the can being kicked down the road). I called the site owner out on this and I asked him to show me how I violated the rules of the site or the terms of service of the parent site or the terms of service of THAT parent site. If he could come up with concrete proof that I did violate rules or terms of service, I would fully accept my ban and move on. Of course, he could not. Because he had nothing. Nothing but a hunch and a rush to judgment. All in the interest of protecting the site. Protecting the site from what? A takeover? A virus? A sharknado? The oncoming nuclear apocalypse?
No. My only crime was I decided to choose a few people I consider family over the site I gave my blood, my sweat, my tears, and millions of words for, all while asking for nothing more than a thank you for a job well done. And because of this behavior, the site lost good people. GREAT PEOPLE. GREAT WRITERS. Including this one. In the interest of protecting the site, you made yourself and the site I and others left behind less credible virtually overnight. That site is less valuable today than it was a week ago, all because you showed favoritism to some and decided to not give your own staff the benefit of a doubt. A honest conversation could have prevented all this. You boarded up the windows hoping you’d be protected from the storm. But the storm that came did far more damage than you realize.
I’m sure my old home will recover from the wreckage and rebuild soon enough. But while they replace replace the people lost with people just as, if not more competent, it’s the personalities that go away forever. Their presence will be missed. That’s really what’s lost.
It’s been a fun five years. I’ll miss the people. I’ll miss the camaraderie. But sometimes, moving on is the not just the best option, but the only one. They made their choice. I made mine. I wish you all well.